Senior Magistrate Aminu Fagge, who gave the order, adjourned the case until Aug. 29, for further mention.

Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, ASP Yusuf Sale, told the court that the complainant, Shamsudeen Ibrahim, who lives in Tudun Yola Quarters, Kano, reported the case at Rijiyar Zaki Divisional Police Station on Aug.13.

He said that at about 4 p.m the defendants broke into the complainant’s house in Tudun Yola Quarters, Kano also stole a rechargeable lamp valued at N2,000, a decoder receiver, stole two handbags, hijab and brocade material.

Sale said that during investigation, one bag, the rechargeable lamp and decoder were recovered from the defendants.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of sections 97, 343 and 287 of the Kano State Shari’a Court Law.

Diack was in charge of the world athletics governing body during 1999-2015. He was under investigation since 2016, facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a heavy fine. Diack’s former legal advisor and former IAAF anti-doping chief will also appear on court.

While congratulating the new officer, Makinde said that his appointment was a clear demonstration of the fact that the state government was committed to doing what was right “without any political or religious coloration or gender bias”.

“If you look at all the Justices here, they are women. If you also look at the first five officials of the government, two are women. That is how I really feel we should operate, because whatever position we are occupying is just temporary.

“I will leave my position as the governor of the state and your tenure will end one day, but I pray you will end well.

“I want to use you as a point of contact to officials and leaders occupying positions of authority. We must have that sense of humility and do what is right all the times.

“I don’t have any doubt that in your current position, not only will justice be served, it will be served in a timely manner. I wish you a successful tenure,” Makinde stated.

“Now, we are going to be scheming; we will be having a case at a time. We won’t be having too many lawyers or litigants in the court room, so that we will be able to observe social distancing very well.

“On rape cases, we will first of all have to get to increase the jurisdiction of the Customary Court of Appeal before we can deal them.

“As women judges, we have gone round the whole country, sensitising the people on what it means and the need to train our children.

“When you talk about rape, it could be the man or woman being raped. So, we take care of everybody. That is what I am going to do when we get there.” She said.

The South African government announced on Thursday that it has decided to appeal a court ruling which declares some of its COVID-19 lockdown regulations invalid and unconstitutional.

The government will ask that its appeal be heard on an urgent basis so that it can obtain certainty on the regulations, spokesperson Phumla Williams said in a statement after a virtual cabinet meeting in Pretoria.

The cabinet wishes to assure the nation that all interventions introduced since the declaration of a state of national disaster in March 2020 by Ramaphosa have been directed primarily at saving lives, Williams said.

In implementing these interventions, the government has consistently consulted all sectors of society, as the fight against COVID-19 is a national effort that requires unity in action between the government and all South Africans, said Williams.

On Tuesday, the North Gauteng High Court ruled against the COVID-19 lockdown regulations in the country.

“Some of the regulations promulgated by the government simply did not meet the rationality test in preventing the spread of COVID-19,” the court said in its ruling.

The court suspended the declaration of invalidity for a period of 14 days, meaning that the current Alert Level Three regulations remain in operation for now so as to allow Dlamini-Zuma, in consultation with relevant ministers, to review, amend and republish the regulations with “due consideration to the limitation each regulation has on the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.”

Williams said that after obtaining legal advice and listening to numerous comments made by members of the legal fraternity in reaction to the judgement, “we are of the view that another court might come to a different conclusion on the matter.”

“While government appeals the court judgment, current regulations remain in force and we appeal and urge all our people to observe all the health protocols that have been put in place including washing of hands, social distancing, wearing of masks in public as well as screening and referral for testing where necessary,” Williams said.

Burundian constitutional court on Thursday said it approved the results of last month’s presidential election, declaring ruling party’s presidential candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye as the president-elect.

The court also rejected the first runner-up’s complaints filed to the court, which challenged the provisional results announced on May 25.